F1 2009- Force India's Sutil crashes out at 6th place with less than 10 laps to finish at China
The title illustrates and communicates my disappointment. It could have been a dream weekend for Vijay Mallya, team owner. His cricket team, the Royal Challengers emerged winners in its inaugural IPL cricket match yesterday and today his Force India car driven by Adrian Sutil in the Shanghai may well have taken sixth place ahead of last year's world championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.
But not all days are Fridays as some put it.
Sutil was under constant pressure from Lewis Hamilton, who was fighting hard to regain the position which he lost to Sutil after spinning out a few laps earlier. Sutil lost grip, he was carrying more speed than the car could handle forcing him to spin out and hit the barrier with 6 laps to the checkered flag of the Chinese GP. Damage was irreparable.
The positives Mallya can take away from the Chinese GP is Sutil's car was doing well in the wet weather and also exhibited its competence in yesterday's qualifying. In spite of them taking the back row of the grid, the time difference between Vettel's car who started today's race at pole, and the Force India cars was very little.
As the season progresses, I expect the Force India cars to close the gap much further, and I hope they will be able to secure a few much needed points.
The Force India car of Sutil was equivalent to the Mclarens and Ferraris in terms of traction, cornering abilities, straight line speed and acceleration. One thing which Mallya needs, which he doesn't have access to is good luck.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:57:43.485 |
| 2 | M. Webber | Red Bull | + 10.970 |
| 3 | J. Button | Brawn GP | + 44.975 |
| 4 | R. Barrichello | Brawn GP | + 1:03.704 |
| 5 | H. Kovalainen | McLaren | + 1:05.102 |
| 6 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | + 1:11.866 |
| 7 | T. Glock | Toyota | + 1:14.476 |
| 8 | S. Buemi | Scuderia Toro Rosso | + 1:16.439 |
| 9 | F. Alonso | Renault F1 | + 1:24.309 |
| 10 | K. Räikkönen | Ferrari | + 1:31.750 |
| 11 | S. Bourdais | Scuderia Toro Rosso | + 1:34.156 |
| 12 | N. Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | + 1:35.834 |
| 13 | R. Kubica | BMW Sauber | + 1:46.853 |
| 14 | G. Fisichella | Force India F1 | + 1 laps |
| 15 | N. Rosberg | Williams | + 1 laps |
| 16 | N. Piquet jr. | Renault F1 | + 2 laps |
| Did not finish | |||
| 17 | A. Sutil | Force India F1 | + 6 laps |
| 18 | K. Nakajima | Williams | + 13 laps |
| 19 | F. Massa | Ferrari | + 35 laps |
| 20 | J. Trulli | Toyota | + 37 laps |